The military fell short of its recruitment goals once again.
After the fiscal year ended at the end of September, Defense Department officials testified to the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee that the Army, Navy, and Air Force all missed their recruitment goals for the year. While the Marine Corps and Space Force did hit their recruitment numbers, their groups are much smaller than the Army, Navy, and Air Force, so their goals were more modest in comparison.
American Military News reported, “The acting undersecretary for the Pentagon’s personnel and readiness, Ashish Vazirani, recently confirmed to Congress that the U.S. Armed Forces missed recruiting goals by roughly 41,000 recruits in fiscal year 2023.”
He admitted that recruitment was becoming a critical problem. “The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception,” Vazirani said. The all-volunteer force began in 1973 after the war in Vietnam and the end of the draft.
He cited a number of reasons the shortfall, not all of which hold up to scrutiny.
The reasons included were: The strong economy that means it is easier for people to find private sector work, a smaller group of eligible people to recruit from despite a broadening of the qualifications, Gen Z’s low trust in institutions, and fewer young people with family members who have served in the military.
While a strong economy can hinder recruitment, the U.S. doesn’t have a strong a economy right now and hasn’t had one under President Joe Biden. Also, a strong economy didn’t stop the military from hitting its goals in past decades. So the first reason is either a lie or ignorance on Vazirani’s part.
A smaller pool of eligible people to recruit from. This is true. Birth rates are falling, in part, due to a self-centered, anti-family culture that the left is pushing. It is a problem that many countries are facing.
Gen Z’s lack of trust in the military is also a product of the left. It is similar to how the left has worked to make people not trust the police. The result of that has been devastating and happened quickly because fighting crime happens on a daily basis. We are only beginning to feel the effects of military distrust. Right now, it shows in the recruitment numbers, but if we go to war, the problem will escalate quickly.
Fewer young people with family members who have served in the military is related to the distrust young people have for the military. According to Vazirani, 40 percent of young people had a parent who had served in the military in 1995. At the end of 2022, it was only 12 percent.
“This has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society,” he said.
That disconnect, or unfamiliarity, people have with the military leads to alienation and distrust.
This is all leading to a reinstatement of the draft should the U.S. ever go to war again. It won’t be popular, and it could lead to draft riots like happened during the Civil War and protests that were seen against the draft during other wars.
Just like those things didn’t stop the draft then, they won’t again. Simply because the alternative is that the U.S. is defeated and the rights and liberties that the left ignore that will we have will disappear in actuality.
